I do not understand veterans in America

My father-in-law is a veteran of the Royal Navy in which he served for 21 years.

So, I thought I'd try to poke at American vets, probably to my peril.

Here goes.

I am delighted to see that America has the highest living standards in the world. What astonishes me, however, is that a suprisingly large number of your veterans seem to be doing very well for themselves. Much better than vets do elsewhere and even most American civilians. Big cars, big houses...you name it.

So:

1) Are these guys getting good jobs after they leave service?;

2) Or are they getting handouts?

3) Or both?

My father-in-law was quite "lucky". He managed to get a well paid job after leaving the navy, but that is quite unusual after leaving the Services in England. He was also eligible for a war pension, having been injured in service, but again that is very unique.

But I see a lot of US vets who do not look as though they were seriously injured doing very nicely.

My father retired from the Army fairly young, he was injured during the second war. Spent three years in and out of hospitals.
It helped to pay for his doctors in law at the U of W in Seattle.
He got a monthly check in addition to what he earned as a judge.

And he invested in real estate.

He used to own What is now currently Bellfield Business Park, South of Main Street in Bellevue.

112th Ave SE on the West side of Bellfield Business Park was donated to the city by him.

Jamie installed two bidet seats in Auburn WA this morning for a veteran.

For those who serve 20 years ( or more ) such as yours truly, we are paid a pension based on how many years of service. It is not what you call a princely sum, but it aint chopped liver! It is not enough to just live on that, but I retired in 1986 at age 42 after 22 years service. Obviously at that age I am not going to just sit on my ass! But the pension has always been a terrific supplement to whatever job I had. We also get a pretty good medical plan. If you live near a military hospital, you can get treatment there, otherwise it is a plan which works like an HMO, with copays, etc. No dental or vision coverage, though.

For those that only serve a few years, there is no pension, unless you are wounded or otherwise disabled as a result of your service. Then you get a pension which is a percent of what your pay was then, and the percent is based on your percent of disability. You are also then entitled to some care at the VA hospital, which is a whole different ball game from the military hospitals, and is sometimes criticized.

I know what kind of work ethic I have as a result of Navy service. Whenever I have the opportunity to be in the hiring mode, I certainly look favorably on any military service background, because of that work ethic. MANY young punks who never served in the military do not have much committment to their work!

As far as getting work when you get out, there are sometimes opportunities in the military contract arena, where knowledge of a program or technology will get you in, and a high security clearance is very helpful, because it costs $100 grand or so if a company has to start from scratch to clear a new employee in a TS/codeword arena.

But those contract jobs only last as long as the contract, so you have to be willing to bounce around a lot. I chose to avoid that arena, and the only drawback was that a lot of civilian employers are clueless about what a military career is and what skills you could bring to the job. So you have to work your way up.